Tarot and Kabbala

Tempore patet occulta veritas

JordanO said:

The version used by GD & friends is(was?) the William Wynn Westcott translation, today considered inaccurate to the original SY. His attributions are the familiar GD associations:
Beth - Mercury
Gimel - Luna
Daleth - Venus
Kaph - Jupiter
Peh - Mars
Resh- Sol
Tau - Saturn

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A curious feature of the Golden Dawn system when mapping the sequence of planets from Tree to Tarot is the Whitehead link: http://books.google.com/books?id=Ny...6-nJBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8

Perhaps the author(s) of the “Cipher Manuscripts” may have been bringing Qabalah within the scope of a kind of Erlangen program. However, being an encryption devised by Trithemius, we might consider the possibility of a clandestine tradition reaching Levi by way of Paracelsus &/or Agrippa.

...or, The Book of Thoth, exhibiting properties of a hyper-spatial geometry, is itself a ‘projection’ emanating from a higher dimension?

JordanO

Hi Jordan,

I've been kicking around in my head the notion of doing a map of influences between people and philosophies, but decided it would be too much work, and never finish.....

Nevertheless, your list would make a very good start.

Are you, or any other denizens here, interested in such a project.

I have a diagramming tool that can publish its results as HTML,
and can split large networks of information into many diagrams, for manageability (UML modelling tool ).
So, I could do the hack work and publish the results, if the rest of the world would like to provide the intellectual input.

An even more adventurous project would be the use of the OWL language rather than UML. I don't know of any tools that can do it visually/graphically,
but OWL maps can be mined by software to find releationships between things, and to draw new inferences (inference engine).
OWL is a level on top of RDF, with both being technologies that might form the foundation of WWW2 - the Semantic Web.
(RDF is another possibility)

B

venicebard said:

More than just metaphorical: the melding of bardic numbering and letter-order with Sefer Yetzirah distribution into simples, doubles, and mothers yields an exact map of how atom-types relate to life—complete with potassium-chloride holding fluid within cells and sodium-chloride holding fluid in the intercellular fluid, oxygen being required to remain upright, magnesium relating to sight (the horizon before) by burning with highly actinic light, and so on. But yeah, it includes metaphor, being what I call ‘poetic truth’, that is, relating the chemistry of life to the human condition.
You know, one of my criticisms of modern Kabbalah is the tendency of authors to try to cram the truly scientific view of reality underlying what has survived of this ancient system of understanding into the cubbyholes of modernist ‘fads’ like the long-discredited Darwinian theory of evolution (or even the patchwork failure that is neo-Darwinism), or the ‘big bang’ (which is absurd on the face of it and collapses utterly next to plasma cosmology, whose approach is much more empirical than gravitational [Einsteinian] cosmology since it explains galaxy formation easily without invoking ‘dark matter’ and other such mumbo-jumbo). I imagine Kabbalah has even been reshaped by some to fit moral relativism! (Talk about a round peg in a square hole!)

No, I’ll take Hermetic science’s take on things any day, as it is much more consistent with what is revealed by modern quantum theory and particle physics than general or special relativity, for instance. And in Hermetic science, man is the degeneration of a higher being—Adam Qadmon—not an improvement on the ape.

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Do you have any postings or sites where you've collected this kind of thing and listed it out?

Seems to me that a lot of (not all) modern science is just another form of religion, which is essentially semantics for describing the same or similar things. You call it No-thing, I call it dark matter, whathaveyou. I do understand that string-theory is one of the few theories that still holds a little, even quantum may be outdated at this point. In any case, I know that 'true' 'scientists' are a lot closer to what we think of as hermetic so to speak. As above, so below. The observable i.e. 'measurable' is a reflection of the unseen or internal universe from which this one spawns. It seems that the deep deep knowledge of modern physicists can be the leveler of the playing field for any kind of codes inherent in any culture's spiritual system. Especially when we are comparing different systems to each other. Where's the "middle pillar"? The mind may be mental, but the intuition is in the middle. That's where hermeticism and modern science are at their strongest and best. Balance of skepticism and holistic integration=intuition, inner guidance.

As far as evolution goes, it is simply the external counterpoint to involution, or the creation. Lighting strike down, climb back up the tree. I don't see any of these systems as mutually exclusive, but more often that not complimentary to some degree.

I would like to mention, perhaps introduce to some of you, another influence of mine that could help play a role. It is a basic philosophy and science in one called permaculture, more or less 'founded' by an Australian man named Bill Mollison. Beanu will know who I'm talking about as Mollison is a national (or continental?) hero.
Permaculture is essentially whole-systems thinking dedicated to Earth-living. One look at Mollison's Permaculture Design Manual cover and you'll have an idea of how this works. It's all things sustainable, and it sustains in cycles. The ancients knew of the cycles of nature, and this what the eco-system is and is all about...birth, death, re-birth etc. I believe the Tree of Life is the mapping of this terrain. Permaculture is an attempt to blend modern scientific understandings of nature with ancient wisdom, ethics and principles. I highly recommend literature and education in this field. As we observe and measure the ebbs and flows of Mother Nature, we yield patterns. Finding patterns is precisely what we're aiming to do. I think the future will be built around these deeply rooted (pun intended) systems of wisdom.

I'm sorry if this topic seems unrelated, but I feel if something can help us understand this myriad of things, to help put it all in perspective, it might as well be at least mentioned. Our very way of living is the most profound, personally meaningful rich source of understanding and inspiration about the patterns of this universe. Particularly how we choose to interact with the materials of our environment. We can see the archetypes, symbols and patterns bend and blend in everyday life in events, people, places, things and their relation to one another. Looking back on history gives us the perspective of why current events are as they are, and why manifestations take the shapes they do. Learning about the ancient knowledge of cycles, water, weather, topsoil.. in short, the elements, provides a basic start to observing the principles of the ToL *in action*. Maybe it would be made less abstract, something I'd be fine with.

Beanu,

Your project sounds great, and ambitious, but great nonetheless. I have no idea what programming stuff you are talking about, but I trust you know what you're talking about. Feel free to let us know what we can do to contribute to the project.

Hi,
I'm back from my trip and read through the entries. I wanted to comment on many of the good points brought up but thought I would limit myself to Venicebard's entry on the Noblet Tarot.

I realize that we are all just speculating when it comes to these details, and I at first thought the male genital on the Fool card was circumcized, which would be a reference to the Abrahamic tradition. But that doesn't explain why the Devil's genital looks the same as the Fools. I concluded that rather than circumcism these genitals symbolize sensual appetites, desire.

There is a story in one of Ramon Llull's novels about a blind beggar who is led from door to door by his son and his son's dog. The son dies and the blind beggar has to rely on the dog to lead him. One day the dog sees a rabbit and leads the blind man into the ditch. The point of the story is that the appetites will lead us astray. In occult Tarot lore, the Fool's dog is often described as the instinctual nature. The Fool on the journey to the One must not be led astray by his instincts which are preying on him.

I have read in the secondary literature the Kabbalistic debates around circumcism. For example, I read that some Kabbalists debated whether God was circumcized and if he was, who did it. The conclusion was that God circumcized Himself. But I am not aware that any of these debates entered into the Christian Cabala. It seems that the Kabbalah tradition was conflated with Christian Platonism of Ps Dionysius. The tradition of Ps Dionysius moved away from anthropomorphism, causing Martin Luther to accuse Dionysius of Platonizing more than Christianizing. Christian anthropomorphism being Christ.

In any case, why would the devil be circumcized? It really makes no sense in either Jewish or Christian context.

I think, though, that we have to also distinguish here between pre and post Giordano Bruno who brought magic into the Lullian tradition. That was a major shift of perspective in which your argument would make more sense. I am not sure, though, that the Noblet reflects this shift away from the more medieval thinking. What is your explanation of the the Noblet Devil card?

Cephalus

kapoore said:

There is a story in one of Ramon Llull's novels about a blind beggar who is led from door to door by his son and his son's dog. The son dies and the blind beggar has to rely on the dog to lead him. One day the dog sees a rabbit and leads the blind man into the ditch. The point of the story is that the appetites will lead us astray. In occult Tarot lore, the Fool's dog is often described as the instinctual nature. The Fool on the journey to the One must not be led astray by his instincts which are preying on him.

Click to expand...

The Tarot Root of Four: 0=22=4=13 suggests a correspondence between The Fool and Orion as his placement opposite the 13th constellation lends this formula a certain symmetry:

(0=22) Air/Ox: Orion (+Taurus' hide)
4 Aries ( http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=117612&page=1 )
13 Scorpio/Ophiucus

Hesiod, in Works & Days, relates the year reckoned by Orion’s rising/setting with The Sun.
The Iliad gives him the star Sirius for his dog.

And even though only fragments remain of his cycle from antiquity, the 16th century Italian mythographer Natalis Comes interpreted his story as that of a storm cloud begotten by Air (Zeus), Water (Poseidon), and The Sun (Apollo); turned into rain by The Moon (Artemis). The alchemists Michael Maier (Atalanta Fugiens, 1617) and Antoine-Joseph Pernety (1758?) similarly used Orion for allegorical purposes.

The sparsity of material related to Orion surviving from the ancient world may be due to his being the central mythos of an ancient mystery 'school'. Orion is blinded also, though his is cured with the aid of Hephaestus, whose servant, Cedalion, guides him East unto the rays of Helios that will restore his sight.

A lost Sophocles satyr play entitled Cedalion may allude to an entheogenic tradition as one surviving fragment suggests a chorus of inebriated Cabeiri - the sons of Hephaestus, well known for their wine-drinking and metallurgy... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabeiri#cite_note-8

Hi Yygdrasilian,

I love Orion, and can see it looking south from my backyard. I checked and Orion does have two dogs Canis Major and Canis Minor. He is known as the Hunter in Greek mythology and did kill the lion Taurus. I don't know, though, how to use the constellations on the Tarot deck and so much of your comments are lost on me.

I'm not sure where Ramon Llull got his story about the blind beggar and the dog. But he did live at a time when Spain was in close contact with the Muslim world. Muslim navigators explored the far East before the Latins got into the act, and they would have navigated by the stars. I'm not sure, though, that a mythographer would accept a correlation between the two stories. Orion is a hunter and armed and the blind begger is being led from house to house first by his son and then by the dog. Another source for the dog might be Petrarch who started the fashion of humanistic scholars having lap dogs. (I'll get that source for you if you are interested) The painting of St. Jerome in his Study by Durer has a dog. I favored the dog as representing the instincts because that is common in occult Tarot lore; and I try to stay within the occult Tarot tradition as much as possible.

In Pursuit of Eos

The stars Sirius (canis major) and Procyon (canis minor) are both counted among the Behenian stars in Agrippa’s De Occulta Philosophia, each of which is attributed a plant, gemstone, and kabbalistic symbol. The bahman (“root”) star was considered a source of planetary power in medieval astrology, but the tradition may derive from more ancient sources...

Their arabic names translate as “teary-eyed woman” (Sirius) and “bleary-eyed woman” (Procyon / Gomeisa) - perhaps a vestige of the ancient myth of Isis (Sirius) searching for her lost brother/lover Osiris (Orion); in which case, Canis Minor may have had some relation to Nepthys.

The dog, Laelaps (canis major) has been suggested as the name of Orion’s hunting dog; and what fragments remain of his myth cycle bear some similarity to the tale of Cephalus (“Head”). As Laelaps, the dog who always catches his prey, chases the Teumessian fox, who can never be caught, it has been surmised that canis major may have signified the latter. However, Procyon-Gomeisa doesn’t appear to have been recognized by the ancient Greeks as a constellation - unless the meaning “before the dog” (Procyon) is in reference to said Fox.

Zeus resolves their paradox by turning both to stone; and perhaps this is reflected in the motion of Two eternally chasing One anOther in the house of


I'm not so sure about Orion killing "the lion Taurus" and suspect the hide he holds may be in reference to the formula for purifying argentiferous gold by sulphide of antimony - a crucial 'metallurgical' process involved in the 'restoration' of sight to the blind Eye in One's Head.

Yygdrysalian's info on Orion is pretty good. Also see http://www.constellationsofwords.com/Constellations/Orion.html.

As Osiris, identified by the Greeks with Dionysus, Orion would indeed have been a central figure in the ancient Mysteries. He fits my ideas about the Fool well. The testicles then become the grapes (sacred to Dionysus) that the "little foxes" of the Song of Songs want to grab, seen by Bernard of Clairvaux and others as the heretics. The generic animal on the Noblet could stand in for a fox--or Dionysus's goat, which in Virgil, as quoted by Cartari (1551), was known for eating the grapes before they were ready for harvest. The basic idea is that of sacrilege.

In Meier's Atalanta Fugiens, the invocation of Orion is in terms of the myth that he was born of the urine of three gods who pissed onto an ox-hide (perhaps a euphemism for depositing semen). The word Orion, on this account, comes from the Greek word for urine. Perhaps in alchemy it is a code for uric acid. One emblem shows Orion in water, about to receive an arrow from Artemis. Between the two emblems, Orion would seem to be a metaphor for dissolution and rebirth--as in Dionysus/Osiris, dismemberment and re-memberment.

The account from Hesiod seems to be a Greek retelling of the myth related in Plutarch's "Isis and Osiris," Osiris as the water that ascends to the clouds, condenses as rain over Ethiopia (the piss of the gods, accoriding to Isadore of Seville,at above website), and flows down to Egypt as the rising of the Nile. It is also the "tears of Isis," on one Greek account (Pausanias, I think). The Nile flood is heralded by the rising of Sothis/Isis on the horizon at dawn, which time marks the beginning of the Egyptian year.

The "swelling of the Nile" could be part of what is suggested by the rather long and red phallus on the Fool. I don't know if he is circumcised, but there is evidently an influx of blood there, even the hint of an erection. The Devil's member, in contrast, is simply red at its head; perhaps he is impotent. The red color would certainly suggest circumcision. And I don't see why not: Jewish devils are servants of God, the prosecuting attorneys in the court of Judgment, and those who test Jews to see if they really have faith or not, as in the Book of Job. And phalli are not just symbols of appetite. The swelling of the Nile is also the influx of spirit in matter, red, as in the Pope card, symbolizing spirit. Red, in the Renaissance, also refers to the blood of Christ, the relevance of which I will explain in another post.

OK, now for the blood of Christ, and a return to the Kabbalah.

First, the 15th-17th centuries were well aware of issues around circumcision in Kabbalah, thanks to Pico. Here are some theses of his, first from his cabalist conclusions of Part 1, the opinions of the "Hebrew wisemen":

"28.31. Circumcision was given to free us from the impure powers that circle about.

28.32 Circumcision occurs on the eighth day, because it is superior to the universalized bride."

By "impure powers" Pico is referring to Psalm 12:9 (Vulgate 11:9): "the impious walk in a circle." He gets this from Recanati, his Kabbalist source, according to Farmer. "Eighth day" is the ninth sefira, Yesod; the "universalized bride" is the tenth sefira, Malkhut. In the Tree of Life pictured as a male human body, Yesod is the phallus, as was well known.

Now for some cabalist conclusions in Part Two, on impure powers and circumcision:

"11>22. Through the words of the Cabalists concerning the redness of Esau, and that saying that is in the book Bereshit Rabbah, that Esau was red, and red, avenged him--of whom it is said, Why are your garments red?--it is expressly known that Christ, concerning whom our doctors dexpound the same text, will be he who takes vengeance on impure powers.

11>27. From the principles of the Cabalists it can be clearly deduced that the necessity for circumcision is removed by the coming of the Messiah."

Pico also characterizes Yesod in terms of one of the prophets (Jeremiah?) saying, "They have sold the just for silver," adding that Chrsit was the true God sold for silver (11>19, 11>21). "The Just" is another Kabbalist epithet of Yesod.

So here we see the positive aspect of the phallus, as the blood of Christ and the influx of spirit, the sacrifice which unites the Bridegroom and the Bride. And as Yesod it is God's circumcised phallus.

I see one other place in the Noblet tarot where we have a circumcised phallus: the Magician's finger. Some people say it is simply a wand that is broken off. But the line looks straight and clean when viewed at high resolution. Also, there is an identical finger on a 16th century King of Wands, in Kaplan Vol 2 p. 283. Wands, it seems to me, was then the phallic/generative suit, as you can see from the other Noblet wands court cards. But even as a wand it is a phallic power object. Notice how it points to the vaginal circle in his other hand. And there are other phallic symbols on the card: parallel to the finger is the knife in the purse below, (and other knives plus circles). In Dionysian initiations, there would be a covered phallus there, as would be known from Clement of Alexandria and Roman sarcophagi known in the 16th century. Even the bushes are phallic.

Pico associates Yesod with Mercury. That is a frequent association for the Magician, to Mercury (i.e. Bet in the GD correlations). That is why I put the Magician, in my set of correlations suggested by Pico, in the 9th position, as Yesod. He is the low-status trickster (from the point of view of the Sanhedrin) who is also the agent of salvation (in the Christian view), God who has descended from on high (the 1st position, perhaps) to rescue the soul (Malkhut), after which will follow the ascent.